At first glance, James Ward’s painting Gordale Scar seems consumed by tall limestone cliffs, but with a closer examination of the title, the paintings subtitle, and the painting itself, the painting comes to life. The rolling clouds of thunder above the cliffs and the animals grazing among the base of the cliffs give the painting a dark and beautiful elegance. In between the cliffs is water running off from an ancient glacier. Readers who experience the painting of Gordale Scar along with the book Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, may see a vivid connection as both were written during the Romantic Period. As Shelley writes, “I could hardly see the dark mountains” (57) talking about the darkness in Victor Frankenstein’s life. Shelley in the book Frankenstein, talks about the “creation and design of living organisms” (Shelley xvii). These two works from the Romantic Period correspond with one another in many different ways.
References
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Introduction and Notes by Karen Karbiener. Barnes and Noble, 2003.
Ward, James. Gordale Scar. The Norton Anthology of British Literature: The Romantic Period. 10th ed. Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor. W. W. Norton, 2017. p. C4.
Caeley's Corner 